Eight civilians killed in Russian attack on Ukrainian restaurant

Conrad Hoyt

June 28, 03:45 AM June 28, 03:45 AM

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Eight civilians are dead and dozens more are injured after Russia launched a missile attack on a busy restaurant in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine Tuesday night.

Three children are among the dead, according to Ukrainian officials, who said Russia fired two S-300 surface-to-air missiles at the city, one of which struck the popular Ria Pizza restaurant in the center of the city, per Al Jazeera. A second missile hit a village on the outskirts of the city, injuring five people.

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One day after handing out awards to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines and saying it was a “happy day,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was forced to reckon with the fact that more civilians in his country were killed.

“Each such manifestation of terror proves over and over again to us and to the whole world that Russia deserves only one thing as a result of everything it has done – defeat and a tribunal, fair and legal trials against all [Russian] murderers and terrorists,” Zelensky said in a video posted to social media. “And I thank again and again everyone in the world who supports [Ukraine] and helps protect our people!”

Photos of the Russian missile attack’s aftermath showed piles of rubble and obliterated metal, stone, and glass in the city. Shocking images evoked the horror civilians face as people were loaded on to ambulances and witnesses struggled with the precarious reality they face.

A Belgian freelance journalist told BBC he was at the restaurant moments before it was hit, and that afterward, he could “hear people screaming underneath the rubble as rescuers are trying to save them.”

He estimated up to 80 staff members and customers were on the restaurant premises at the time of the strike.

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Zelensky said this week that Ukrainian forces were advancing “in all directions” as part of their counteroffensive to wrestle land back from Russia. While the push has yet to have major breakthroughs, the tide could soon be turning as many expect Ukraine’s strategic efforts have so far been mostly geared toward uncovering weaknesses before a large-scale attack.

The city of Kramatorsk is in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and had a population of about 150,000 before the war.